Government has offloaded over 1.12 lakh tonnes of pulses, seized from hoarders, in the retail market to improve availability and tame prices.

NEW DELHI: Government has offloaded over 1.12 lakh tonnes of pulses, seized from hoarders, in the retail market to improve availability and tame prices.

The prices have declined from the peak of Rs 200 per kg in October to Rs 160 at present due to various government measures including unearthing of hoarded stock and offloading that in the retail market.

Prices of key pulses, especially tur and urad, shot up unabated in the last few months due to a fall in domestic output by 2 million tonnes in 2014-15 crop year (July-June) because of deficit monsoon.

As per reports received from the state governments, till yesterday, 1,12,545.96 tonne of pulses seized under de-holding operations have been auctioned or offloaded through other options in the market to increase availability. This will help moderate the prices further, an official statement said today.

"Since imposition of the stockholding limits on pulses by the states, 1,31,029.55 tonnes of pulses have been seized so far. Efforts are being made also by other states to expedite disposal of seized pulses as per the provisions of Essential Commodities Act," it said.

As many as 14,726 raids were conducted against hoarders of pulses in 14 states and an union territory.

As per the data, a maximum of 86,709 tonnes of pulses were seized in Maharashtra, of which 81,473 tonnes have been offloaded till yesterday.

Karnataka has offloaded 22,421 tonnes of pulses out of the total seized quantity of 25,545 tonnes so far, while Chhattisgarh has released more than 4,138 tonnes.

Other states are in the process of releasing the seized pulses in the market, it added.